1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a clerical procedures processing apparatus and clerical procedures processing system for guiding a user when registering the contents of prescribed registration items such as registering address changes or the like in clerical procedures.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, when employees of a company had personal changes occur in their lives such as marriage or changing addresses, benefits received from the company differed before and after the occurrence of the change, so the employee had to register with the company registration items (registration events) related to the personal changes. For example, in the case of marriage, in accordance to personal changes that occur due to the marriage, the employ must register with the company information related to the new dependent, and if there was a change in address, the changed address, or in the case of a change in name, the new name.
In order to perform this registration, the employee has to obtain documents from the personnel director for the items to be registered depending on the kind of change that occurred, and then fill out the necessary information on those documents and send the documents back to the personnel director. The personnel director checks the received documents and makes sure no information is missing, then registers the changes by entering the prescribed registration items, such as the employee's address, in a computer or the like and save the changes in a storage apparatus.
Also, a personnel-procedures-processing system has been proposed for managing registered items in a personnel-procedures-processing apparatus, in which the employee could enter the personal changes to be registered using a personnel-procedures terminal and register the input changes in the personnel-procedures-processing apparatus that is connected to the personnel-procedures terminal via a network.
Here, FIG. 35 will be used to explain a conventional personnel-procedures-processing system. In this specification, a personnel procedure processing system is an example of clerical procedures processing system. A personnel procedure processing apparatus is corresponding to a clerical procedure processing apparatus, and a personnel procedures terminal is corresponding to a clerical procedures terminal. As shown in FIG. 35, this personnel-procedures-processing system comprises a personnel-procedures terminal 101, network 102, verification/authorization apparatus 103 and personnel-procedures-processing apparatus 104.
To register items in the personnel-procedures-processing apparatus (hereafter called PPP apparatus) 104 according to personal changes that have occurred, first the employee uses an input-selection means 111 such as a mouse and keyboard and enters a personal ID number and password into the personnel-procedures terminal (hereafter called PP terminal) 101. The ID number and password that were entered are received by an identification-receiving means 113, and then sent to the verification/authorization apparatus 103 by a communication means 110 via the network 102.
In the verification/authorization apparatus 103, a communication means 130 receives the ID number and password that were input by the employee and a verification/authorization means 131 checks whether or not the combination of ID number and password received by the communication means 130 exists in the identification-storage means 132. The combinations of ID numbers and passwords of people that can use the personnel-procedures-processing system (hereafter called PPP system) are registered beforehand in the identification-storage means 132.
When the combination of ID number and password received by the communication means 130 exists in the identification-storage means 132, the verification/authorization means 131 determines that it is possible for the employee to use the PPP system. According to this judgment, the verification/authorization apparatus 103 sends the ID number to the PPP apparatus 104 to store it in the memory means 145 of the PPP apparatus 104.
On the other hand, when the combination of the ID number and password received by the communication means 130 does not exist in the identification-storage means 132, the verification/authorization means 131 determines that the employee cannot use the PPP system. The verification/authorization apparatus 103 send disapproval information indicating that to the PP terminal 101, and by displaying a message on the display 112 of the PP terminal 101, the employee is prompted to enter the personal ID number and password again.
When the verification/authorization means 131 determines that it is possible for the employee to use the PPP system, an execution means 144 sends a first guidance screen to the PP terminal 101 via a communication means 140, communication means 130 and network 102. As shown in FIG. 36, the first guidance screen gives guidance to the user of the PPP system on how to select whether to perform ‘User Procedures’, or ‘Family Procedures’. This first guidance screen is received by the PP terminal 101 via the communication means 110 and displayed on the display 112.
When the user or employee is going to perform ‘User Procedures’, the employee selects the item ‘User Procedures’ in the first guidance screen displayed on the display 112 as shown in FIG. 36 using the input-selection means 111. On the other hand, when the employee is going to perform ‘Family Procedures’, the employee selects the item ‘Family Procedures’ in the first guidance screen displayed on the display 112 as shown in FIG. 36 using the input-selection means 111. After the employee selects either ‘User Procedures’ or ‘Family Procedures’ in this way, a selection-judgment means 114 determines which item was selected, and sends the judgment result to the PPP apparatus 104 via the communication means 110, network 2 and communication means 130.
In the PPP apparatus, the communication means 140 receives the judgment result indicating which item, ‘User Procedures’ or ‘Family Procedures’, was selected, and based on that judgment result, the execution means 144 activates either the user-procedures means 146 or family-procedures means 147. For example, when the first guidance screen was displayed on the display 112 and the employee selected ‘User Procedures’, the execution means 144 activates the user-procedures means 146, however, on the other hand, when the employee selected ‘Family Procedures’, the execution means 144 activates the family-procedures means 147.
The case of when the employee selected ‘User Procedures’ will be explained below. In this case, the execution means 144 activates the user-procedures means 146, and the user-procedures means 146 sends a second guidance screen to the PP terminal 101 via the communication means 140, communication means 130 and network 102 to prompt the user or employee to make a selection. For example, as shown in FIG. 37, this second guidance screen prompts the user to select from among the ‘User Procedures’ items whether to perform (A) ‘Address Procedures’, (3) ‘Salary Bank Account Change’, (4) ‘Congratulations/Condolence Notice’, (5) ‘Employee Savings Amount Change’, (6) ‘Name Change’, (7) ‘Holdings Procedures’, or (8) ‘Benefits/Assets Change’. This second guidance screen is received by the communication means 110 of the PP terminal 101 and displayed on the display 112.
Also, when the user or employee is going to perform (A) ‘Address Procedures’, the employee selects the item ‘Address Procedures’ in the second guidance screen that is displayed on the display 112 as shown in FIG. 37 using the input-selection means 111. On the other hand, when the employee is going to register changes in one of the items (3) ‘Salary Bank Account Change’ to (8) ‘Benefits/Assets Change’, the employee uses the input-selection means 111 and selects the item for which changes are to be registered from among the items of the second guidance screen that is displayed on the display 112. After the employee selects ‘Address Procedures’ or one of the registration items in this way, the selection-judgment means 114 determines which item was selected and sends the judgment result to the PPP apparatus 104 via communication means 110, network 102 and communication means 130.
Suppose that when the second guidance screen was displayed on the display 112 the employee selected (A) ‘Address Procedures’, the execution means 144 activates the address-procedures means 148 via the user-procedures means 146. The activated address-procedures means 148 sends a third guidance screen (see FIG. 38) to the PP terminal 101 to prompt the user or employee to further select a registration item from among the items (1) ‘Address Change’ or (2) ‘Commute Reimbursement Change’. This third guidance screen is received by the communication means 110 in the PP terminal 101 and displayed on the display 112.
When the employee is going to register a change in address, the employee uses the input-selection means 111 and selects (1) ‘Address Change’, and when the employee is going to register a change in the commute reimbursement after a change in address, the employee selects (2) ‘Commute Reimbursement Change’. After the employee has selected the registration item in this way, the selection-judgment means 114 determines which registration item was selected and sends that judgment result to the PPP apparatus 104.
In the PPP apparatus 104, the communication means 140 receives the judgment result indicating which registration item, (1) ‘Address Change’ or (2) ‘Commute Reimbursement Change’, was selected, and the execution means 144 activates the guidance means 149 related to the registration item selected by the employee via the user-procedures means 146 and address-procedures means 148. For example, when the employee selects registration item (1) ‘Address Change’, the execution means 144 activates the address-change-guidance means 149a, and when the employee selects registration item (2) ‘Commute Reimbursement Change’, the execution means 144 activates the commute-reimbursement-change-guidance means 149b. 
The activated address-change-guidance means 149a or commute-reimbursement-guidance means 149b sends guidance data corresponding to the registration item selected by the employee to the PP terminal 101.
The guidance data that are sent to the PP terminal 101 are displayed on the display 112, and the employee enters contents in the prescribed fields of the guidance screen as described above. After entering the contents, the entered contents are sent as described above to the PPP apparatus 104, where it is attached to the pre-stored ID number and then stored by the storage means 145.
In other words, the user makes successive selections from a multi-layered menu to finally select a certain item, and then guidance data for prompting input of the contents is sent to the PP terminal for the first time.
Similarly, when-the employee selected ‘Family Procedures’ when the first guidance screen (see FIG. 36) was displayed, the execution means 144 activates the family-procedures means 147, and sends a fourth guidance screen to the PP terminal 101 to prompt the user or employee to select a registration item from among the ‘Family Procedures’ to perform. As shown in FIG. 39, this fourth guidance prompts the user of the PPP system to select a registration item, (9) ‘Wife Gives Birth’, (10) ‘Dependent Registration’ or (11) ‘Family Registration’, from among the ‘Family Procedures’ items. Similarly, the employee selects a menu from this fourth guidance screen and performs input, and the input contents are attached to the pre-stored ID number and stored by the storage means 145.
In the past, the employee selected registration items that had to be registered in the PPP apparatus according to personal changes that occurred, and registered the contents of those selected items in the PPP apparatus.
As mentioned above, when personal changes occur in the life of an employee of a company, the employee must register the contents of those personal changes in a PPP system for example. However, it is often unclear what contents must be registered for the personal changes that have occurred. For example, in the case of a marriage, the employee must perform registration for the dependent, change of address, change of name, etc., however, the employee may register the dependent or change of name and forget about registering a change of address, and some of the items that should be registered may not be. Naturally, by constructing a multi-layer menu, input by the employee is made somewhat easier to understand, however, and particularly, in the work related to personnel procedures, the contents that must be registered by the employee are very complex and diverse, so there is never an end to trouble such as input omissions.
In other words, in the past, when an employee had personal changes, the employee did not know all of the items that needed to be registered and so had to inquire with the personnel director.
Also, in a convention PPP system as shown in FIG. 35, for example, when an employee, who checked which items needed to be registered according to personal changes, tried to change ‘Commute Reimbursement’, as described above, that employee had to activate the user-procedures means 146 and then activate the address-procedures means 148, and finally activate the commute-reimbursement-change-guidance means 149b that corresponded to the registration item (2) ‘Commute Reimbursement Change’. However, some users or employees may not know that when changing the ‘Commute Reimbursement’, after activating the user-procedures means 146 and then the address-procedures means 148, that it is necessary to activate the commute-reimbursement-change-guidance means 149b. Supposing that the employee does know that fact, the employee trying to make changes to the ‘Commute Reimbursement’ may have problems with the time required for activating the user-procedures means 146 and address-procedures means 148.